Online in Scotland

The march towards radio’s future continues in Scotland. The land of single malts may bring to mind pastoral scenes hardly evocative of high technology, but this perception is far from accurate. As a matter of fact, Jeff Zycinski, head of radio for BBC Scotland, is helping spearhead a major initiative in this regard.

One of the tasks Jeff is currently working on has him very excited as the station is moving into a new era with the creation of themed zones which will be transmitted on analogue before going on to the Radio Scotland website.

Producers are taking advantage of the state-of-the-art digital technology at BBC Scotland’s Pacific Quay headquarters to deliver a wealth of archived material from down the years.

The historic content will be combined with the best of the station’s current output to provide an exciting expansion of choice for listeners through the five zones: Celtic; history; new music; the arts; classical and jazz, and comedy.

“We are aware that audiences are moving online for just about everything these days, so this allows us the chance to tailor material to different audiences.

“Programmes are available on demand at the moment, but from June, they will have a life of their own and be mini radio stations in their own right.

“They will have presentation in between shows, which will make them sound like a regular station. These will run for a five-and-a-half-hour loop initially but we’ll monitor them and see what works, then perhaps make changes.”

Using the web for nostalgic media viewing is not a new trend, but Zycinski’s programming project takes things to a whole new level. I particularly like the fact that the BBC is planning on broadcasting the content on standard radio first before making the shows downloadable. A nice leveraging of both sides of the media equation!

One Response to “Online in Scotland”

Very innovative… Radio must be saved once again as it was in the 40’s and 50’s when television became popular and advertisers began trading one for the other. If only the KLF would return… All would be well. We must find them: http://www.myspace.com/popincorporated
xxx
Brooke